The Bush administration to be more specific.

Why was what he said controversal? Bush did use 9/11/2001 as a scapegoat for his own purposes to invade Iraq when they had nothing to do with Binladen.

There weren't any weapons of mass destruction such as that which could cause a "Mushroom cloud" as Rice stated.

I'm guessing Clarke is criticized for being too critical of the Bush Administration but there wasn't any evidence that Binladen and Suddam were connected. I also kind of find it odd that Clarke was the only one in the Administration (before he left) that apologized for the events of 9/11.

It's kind of scary to look at those videos floating around wikilinks of 2007 assaults on Iraqi civilians (including children) and not know why your country even invaded the other country and killed caused so many civilian deaths.

Civilian deaths are unavoidable, granted, but there was no reason for them and they weren't even fighting the terrorists that caused 9/11 by going into that country.

just because he didnt have them, doesnt mean he didnt want them or didnt act like he didnt have any.

What's your point? The U.N. didn't accept America invading Iraq but America went ahead anyway. The dictator of North Korea's a much bigger threat with missiles that could hit America.

What I'm trying to say here is: There are plenty of dictators in the world. Suddam was one who couldn't threaten America. Binladen hated the guy for his attempted invasion of Kuwait. Hussein was one of the dictators who didn't want Binladen in his country.

Why didn't the U.S. simply take down Afghanistan, the country ruled by the Taliban and Al Qaeda's base of operations? It makes no sense to have wasted all that money to try and force a democracy to happen if there were other dictatorships with weapons at their disposal. And, again, Iraq had nothing to do with Al Qaeda. They might erupt in civil war now and America already looks like the aggressor internationally for having invaded Iraq for no reason. 

I don't know exactly what he said but the notion that the Bush administration used 9/11 as a scapegoat is pretty true I think. I know for certain that my government did. Plus it was used for a whole host of anti-terrorism legislation that on paper reads like Australia is a partial police state.

[citation needed]

Someone didn't read the 9/11/2001 commission report or spent time watching the debate between Clarke and the White House, in which the White House retracted their statements because of other Federal agencies backing Clarke up such as the CIA and the Federal Bureau of Investigations.

Even before this investigation, a valid reason I believe Clarke is because he was the lead expert on Counterterrorism and in 1999 investigated any possible connection with Al Qaeda and Hussein to check if Binladen might seek refuge in Iraq. By the end of 1999, Clarke concluded there was no proof of any connection between the two.

Here's a link to a few interview and criticism of him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yRjSOyyZic

And, to be perfectly clear, most of the information indicates that Condaleezza Rice had done her job poorly.

Interestingly enough, during 2008, former CIA director George Tenet published his own book and criticized Bush's administration, mainly Rice, for their inactions during 9/11. Which provided even more collaboration to Clarke's statements.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffjXthuNn60

I'm surprised, I was sort of expecting a discussion but instead it was just a few comments... likely by people who didn't come back to read my response.

...Oh well.

Just to tackle a side point, why should any member of the US government apologise for 9/11? They had nothing to do with it.

It's what Bush did AFTER 9/11 that turned everything into a clusterfuck.

@Kantor: If i recall, CIA could have had taken Bin Laden out years before 9.11 happened (already one of the most wanted terrorists) and CIA had warned the government about the terrorist attack, but CIA wasn't taken seriously.

Because they didn't act when they should have or show any sympathy to their own citizens.

1.) It gives the image of compassion to the American people. Which may even raise approval ratings like President Kennedy's admittance to the failure of the Bay of Pigs and taking blame for it.

2.) Secrutary of State Rice didn't take the information of the two Al Qaeda hijackers that were discovered by Tenet on alert to the necessary cabinets that should have been notified and would have been had Rice done her job correctly.

3.) The Bush Administration on a whole was extremely negligent regarding Al Qaeda's activities prior to 9/11/2001. Several months went by with no measures taken in preventing or stopping their activities. Clarke, who was head of counterterrorism under Clinton and had been working in the White House since Reagan's time, was ignored despite doing his utmost in trying to alert the Bush Administration on the dangers of Al Qaeda.

To be frank, Al Qaeda wasn't some new organization that mysteriously made itself known on 9/11/2001. They had declared war on America in 1996, were responsible for the Twin Tower parking lot bombings, and several other events around the world.